He wasn't about to let a Do-Not-Travel warning upend his lifelong quest
Hirsh Henfield wasn’t about to let the State Department’s do-not-travel list stand in the way of completing his quest. The 33-year-old Clevelander was just one country short of his goal of visiting the entire Middle East, with Yemen the only place he had yet to explore. Traveling to a place where threats of terrorism abound and strapping on a weapon is part of getting dressed in the morning was just part of the itinerary
Hirsh Henfield, who lives in the Shaker Heights area of Cleveland and works in the logistics business, is a seasoned traveler. He and his wife Deena take their three sons on international trips over winter break and during the summers, and visits to Israel often include stopovers in Europe, giving the entire family a chance to experience different cultures and countries. The Henfields take turns choosing a destination for an adults-only trip once each year, the most recent of which took them to Tunisia. Henfield also makes solo trips to destinations that Deena prefers to avoid.
“Sometimes it’s because of the level of danger, as well as the fact that many of these places are very conservative and traveling there as a woman isn’t always advisable,” he says of his wife’s deferrals.
Seeing the world has always appealed to Henfield, whose childhood fascination with history later grew to encompass geography and geopolitics. Coupled with his love of understanding how Jewish history fits into the larger global picture, particularly in the Muslim world, Henfield’s interest in the Middle East comes as no surprise.
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